These delicious and easy christmas cookies are perfect to make with your family this holiday season. They only require 6 ingredients which you probably already have in your pantry: butter, sugar, vanilla, flour and food coloring. This is a great recipe to make with kids; the dough is colorful and easy to work with, it’s like Play-Doh you can bake! 

A few notes on this recipe: 

• Using sparkling sugar to coat the edges is a fun touch but not necessary. If you don’t have any sparkling sugar, don’t worry about it. Regular granulated sugar won’t work (but you are welcome to try) 
• Gel food coloring works best in these cookies (and in most baked goods, in my opinion) as it is more pigmented and doesn’t add moisture to your dough like liquid food coloring does. Gel food coloring comes tubes or jars, and you can usually find it in your local Walmart or Target

BOLT’s Easy Christmas Cookies:

Makes 12 Cookies  

Ingredients 

• 1 stick of butter, room temperature 
• ¼ cup granulated sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• Red and green food coloring
• Coarse sparkling sugar (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl beat your softened butter, granulated sugar, and vanilla with a spoon until well combined 
2. Stir in the flour and knead until the dough is smooth and no flour remains 
3. Divide the dough into 3 pieces and place the dough balls into separate bowls. Add green food coloring to one of the bowls, red food coloring to another and leave the 3rd uncolored. Knead the food coloring into the dough until fully incorporated. Make sure to wash your hands between colors! 
4. Once dough has reached your ideal red and green, press the 3 dough balls together and gently knead to marble, don’t over knead them or they will lose their marbling.  
5. Once you are content with the coloring, roll the ball into a log and place on cling wrap. If opting to use sparking sugar, sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the sugar onto the cling wrap and roll the log to cover. Wrap the cookie dough log tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate for about an hour and a half or until solid. Letting the cookies chill is essential! Because the cookies are mostly butter, they need to firm up before baking or you will get crispy pancakes instead of cookies 
6. When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat 
7. Unwrap your cookie dough log and use a knife to cut cookie slices, about ½ inch thick. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet as they will spread 
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are set. Let cool and then enjoy your festive cookies! 

If you liked this recipe, we have plenty more where that came from! Click here to view all of our BOLT recipes.